Rock Hall Honors: Rock & Roll Hall of Fame reimagines Music Masters with the honoree as the star performer

Updated Jan 14, 2019; Posted Jan 13, 2019

The Plain Dealer

Don Everly of the Everly Brothers takes on singing solo to the delight of other musicians in the back as he sings the lyrics to "Bye Bye Love" during a Music Masters tribute to the duo brothers at Playhouse Square Oct. 25, 2014, sponsored by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum. It was moments like that which helped convince the museum to reinvent the event as Rock Hall Honors, in which the Hall of Famer who's being honored will be the featured performer. (John Kuntz / The Plain Dealer)

The event, which was born in 1996 with a show honoring the late Woody Guthrie and ran until 2017’s installment paying tribute to fellow Hall of Famer Johnny Cash, featured several artists performing the works of the honoree as the capper to a week of events at the museum and elsewhere.

In the new version, called Rock Hall Honors, the museum will stage a Thursday-through-Saturday series of events that includes a concert on its own outdoor PNC Stage. But the central part will be a concert, most likely at Playhouse Square’s State Theatre, in which the honoree will be the primary performer, joined by fellow artists of his or her choice.

“Imagine honoring a Bonnie Raitt and she can invite Buddy Guy and Gary Clark Jr., or Alice Cooper with Rob Zombie and Ozzy Osbourne,’’ said Rock & Roll Hall of Fame President and CEO Greg Harris in an exclusive interview with The Plain Dealer. He did, however, stress that the subject for this year’s inaugural Rock Hall Honors effort hasn’t yet been confirmed.

“It’s coming together,’’ Harris said. “Everything we learned through Music Masters and what we’ve learned from doing programs and live music at the museum in the last couple of years is forming the new concept.”

As with Music Masters – the program began as American Music Masters and evolved into simply Music Masters – the artist or band being honored will be an inductee in the Hall of Fame, Harris said.

The celebration would begin with a symposium conducted by longtime Music Masters partner Case Western Reserve University “that puts the artist in context,’’ Harris said. “On Friday, it would be the artist in concert and the guests sit in and perform with him. It’s not 10 others and the artist sitting in the stands.’’

On Saturday, the museum would host a celebration day, with activities, looped screenings of the artists Rock Hall induction and performance videos and finally an outdoor concert on the museum’s big PNC stage.

The latter, which will be the capper in another summer full of live music at the Rock Hall – the museum had 80 days of live music last summer, and is looking to reprise that this year – will feature “an artist of a more contemporary generation in the style of an honoree,’’ Harris said.

But the key will having the Rock Hall Honors subject perform him- or herself, which makes this a bit of a challenge.

“First and foremost, they will all be [Hall of Fame] inductees,’’ he said. “And in selecting them, they have to be actively performing because we would like them to be the featured performers for the show.

“It’s vital and important to identify an honoree able to accept the honor and [able] to fit it into their summer touring schedule and other commitments,’’ Harris said.

Then there’s the added cost; getting a touring Hall of Famer to commit to such a show won’t come cheaply, nor will getting the sort of “guests” Harris and his team are envisioning.

“We understand that this model brings with it more expense, but we feel it will allow us to find broader revenue streams to deliver Rock Hall Honors for our fans,’’ he said. “That will include ticket sales, sponsorships and potentially some grants, especially aligned with the performing arts.’’

On the plus side, though, the committee of programming and education staff members at the museum, as well as Harris himself, who will tap the honorees has a vast pool of possible honorees.

“We have a wide group of artists that are eligible,’’ he said. “If you’ve been inducted, you’re worthy of Rock Hall Honors.’’